Thanks for tuning in today we're going
to be reviewing the Shanren Miles GPS
bike computer.
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Marketed as your first GPS by computer
the new Shanren Miles GPS computer is a
very unique offering from Shanren
like their other products such as the
Raz Pro the Miles computer made a big
splash on Kickstarter
and was recently successfully funded and
has started shipping.
Now Shanren isn't new to GPS computers
either they have a number of lights as
well as a wide range of computers with
integrated lights.
They have been in the business for over
eight years.
So with the Miles GPS computer they're
really targeting
entry level or my more budget oriented
cyclists with this really high feature
yet low-cost computer. They also offer a
couple other accessories like a mount
and sensors that will review separately.
Now as far as packaging on the Miles
computer
you see really simple it's a small box
for the head unit by itself
basic information on the side and the
features on the rear.
A lot of features here despite the
low price. I'll go ahead and take out the
box and we'll go over the
specs. Retail price on this is only $90
so it's really cool to see sub 100 GPS
computers.
It also has a power estimation feature
which you utilizes your weight
cadence and other factors to give
a nice estimate of your power when
you're riding even without a power meter.
Now you can connect a power meter or
other accessories it's BLE and ANT+
connectivity
so you can connect heartrate, cadence, speed or
a power meter
directly with the GPS computer. It has a
2.1 inch screen
so decently sized and good
visibility
and it has up to 25 hour run time which
is also impressive.
The other nice thing about this GPS
computer is that it integrates with
their own Raz Pro tail light
to control and monitor its status.
In terms of what comes in the box you
can see really nicely packaged
you have this nice little box with the
little plastic tray.
You get the computer itself a nice
instruction manual to go over how to
use it and configure it
and with this you also get a basic mount.
Let's go ahead and pop this out
so you can see it's a basic o-ring style
mount
so you can place this on your stem or
handlebar
drop the little pad underneath it for a
little extra support and then you have
two size o-rings so
larger and smaller depending on your
stem or handlebar size
and then wrap this around for a nice
secure fit. You get a micro usb charging
cable as well
to recharge the GPS computer.
Let's take a second to look at the
weight of the computer
so the head unit by itself that comes in
at 60 grams so quite light
and then the simple handlebar mount with
the pad
and the two smaller o-rings comes in at
only six grams.
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Now before we get this set up on the
bike let's go ahead and look at the fit and
finish of the computer.
It's a nice 2.1 inch size screen so it's
a glossy finish
rectangular design with these beveled
edges and it's a matte black style
finish.
You have the Shanren logo on the
side and that's about it.
It is described as aerodynamic but that just
means it has a basic curved style
the integrated battery is hidden
underneath it.
You have a garmin style quarter turn
mount which is really nice to have so
you can use any third-party mount with
this computer you don't need a
proprietary
mount only from Shanren or other single
companies.
You get a micro USB charging port
underneath it so you just pop it off
your bike
and then charge it with a nice little
gasket that keeps it safe from the
elements.
It's ipx 7 rated so we'll definitely
handle rainy days or wet weather ride
without an issue.
You do see the screws here which is a
little bit unusual so you can actually
open this up if you ever needed to.
Otherwise you have a three button interface
and non-touch screen.
So depending on which button you press or
which combination
or press or hole they'll do different
actions. Now let's go ahead and set up
the Shanren GPS computer.
I have it here mounted with the Click 2
mount it's a simple plastic design it
can actually be flipped
left or right which is kind of cool as
you can just flip the puck.
You can see once it's installed it works
pretty well there's some flex
because of the plastic nature of it but
it is a cheap
amount so definitely a good one to
consider if you don't have an out front
mount already.
Now as far as setting up the GPS computer
as with a lot of cheap ones
you simply hold it to turn it on and
you're actually ready to go. It will
use the GPS signal
to get your altitude to get your speed
to get your time zone so everything
should be
pretty well set right when you turn it
on but you may still want to configure
it. So
hold the bottom two buttons that'll
enter the config menu
and here you can see one of the
limitations of the screen design
because everything is kind of in a grid
everything's limited to these certain
areas so sensor is kind of limited here.
You have "sen" on the left side "sor" on
the right because
usually this is divided and then this is
where it gets a little bit confusing
you're in the first sensor
and you have a little icon there. So you
can do the speed sensor
if you click on the bottom right it'll
go through the different options you can
do a
cadence sensor, you can do a combo sensor
you can do a heartrate monitor.
You can even do a power meter which is
really cool especially at this price
point
and then finally you can also do a light
and that's probably one of the coolest
things.
So if you have a Raz Pro which is a
light we've actually reviewed before.
You can actually connect it with this
GPS computer. So i'm going to go ahead
and say yes on that
and now it's going to automatically pair
to the first one it finds.
So you can see really quick it was an
ANT+ connection and says success.
Now they're synced and you have that
little indicator
and now you can actually see that little
icon up there the little
led indicator is synced with the Raz Pro
and that's kind of a cool feature.
So it's actually a full rgb color led
so the Raz Pro can actually change its
led color and so can the indicator
and it stays in sync so when you have a
brake sensor
or a bump sensor automatically change
and if you change a color
just follow suit pretty quickly. That's
the only thing you can do you can only
turn it on and off
and monitor the current state. You can't
actually see the battery or change the
current state
so i think it's kind of a cool feature
maybe a little bit of a gimmick but
definitely cool.
Something they can definitely build on i
would love to be able to
actually see the battery status or
change the mode without having to stop
and then touch it or .
if they added a sub menu option but
definitely a nice feature and I haven't
seen this in any other GPS.
So we'll leave that on go through the
rest of the menu. You can set the wheel
circumference but you only need this if you
have a speed sensor.
Otherwise it'll just use GPS so i'm going
to go ahead and skip through this.
You can set the units and again the
config menu is fairly easy to read
but there's this more cryptic kind of
one two
three on the second page and it shows
you. You can set the miles per
hour
or kilometers per hour so you can switch
between them pretty well laid out
otherwise though given the limitations.
You can set your weight this is
important because of the power the
estimated power it will use your weight
and other
data so cycle through that.
Then up here if you look you can set the
temperature units fahrenheit or celsius
we'll keep that.
You can set the ROAD or MTB
configuration. I believe this is only
used for the Raz Pro
as it can change the calibration of the
brake sensor and bump sensor
as obviously needs to be less sensitive
when you're off-road and on rough
terrain.
You can turn off GPS which is a feature
I haven't seen before either
that could save battery so if you have a
speed sensor you can run this with just
your speed sensor and get a lot more
battery life out of it.
It also has this beep so you can turn
the beep on or off it's kind of cool to
have audible beeps
typically you don't have that on lower
cost computers and I'll leave it on.
You can set your ftp and again that
helps with the normalized power display.
You can say your time zone and what's
cool is you can actually override the
current time
a lot of GPS computers you just set the
time zone and you're kind of stuck so if
you're
someone like me in a daylight savings
area you'll always have the wrong time.
Then once you're done it will go
back to the main screen.
So you have three screens p1 p2 p3
by default this is the current
configuration: rpm and heart rate.
It shows you the road
configuration time
and then all with speed on the bottom.
You also have a lap count here
so if you do one press and you're in an
activity it will actually iterate
through you can use the app to configure
this to actually
with a couple options so it's nice to
have the customization.
Then within any screen you can show
the real time or the average by clicking
the left
or the maximum so that's a really cool
feature.
So plenty of customization here and even
though this is a cheaper display it
looks much more expensive with this
three row layout.
The other thing is with the three
button design
the buttons will do different things
depending on
whether you hold them or press them. So
if you hold the bottom right
and you have the light connected you can
see it turned off
and the taillight also turned off if you
hold it again.
It will turn on the taillights that's a
cool way so you automatically just turn
it on turn it off from here without
actually going down there
and pressing it on the actual device. I
believe it only puts it in standby mode
though so if you want to store the bike
I do recommend manually turn it off
using the power button on the Raz Pro.
Otherwise one press on this will cycle
through the
three pages and again you can customize
this using the app which we'll show
later.
To start or stop a ride you can hold the
bottom left button
and it auto pauses if you have no speed
as i'm
sitting here you can see it shows the
pause symbol and automatically starts
when you're moving.
Single press on
that button will go through
real time average or max.
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Now let's take a look at the Shanren
Sports app it's available both on
the Android and IOS systems. It's a great
way to actually
sync up the Miles GPS as well as the Raz
Pro and configure it
so to get started you click devices add
new device then
click no Miles. Now we'll start a scan
and you see it brings it up pretty
quickly and once you're connected you
actually get quite a few options which
is really cool.
So i'll skip the wizard so you can see
the total distance time
calories percent memory used on the
device.
You can actually adjust the
backlight
so you can adjust it from zero to 100
which is really cool you can't do that
on device.
By default it's set to automatically
turn on when you press a button but you
can change that to be
always on or auto based on time zone.
Next you can change the bike setting and
here's where it's a lot more obvious
what that setting is.
You can see it basically does the tire
circumference and that's about it
you can't actually change the sensors
per profile
you can customize the display and this
is a really nice feature you can't do
that on the device either.
So for the top four fields you have two
options per field
and three options for the bottom two you
can do left right balance on both of
them
or do power as well as cadence. It's
pretty limited
so if you don't have the heart rate
monitor you can only really do
normalized power
and you get three whole pages so you
click next
so there's actually more pages then
actual data available.
Definitely enough here though to really
customize and it's nice to see
especially with such a limited display.
You can do the elevation calibration so
you can input your own
if you have a better estimate than what
the GPS did
you can change the units just like you
can on the system but obviously faster
with the touchscreen.
You can do the advanced settings such as
connecting different sensors
and you can update the firmware which is
really nice too so you definitely want
to do that as to
keep up to date. Now the Shanren app
itself is pretty
simple so you can see devices that are
connected
so you can connect your Raz Pro or other
ones you can sync your ride so
once the Miles is connected you can
see which rides haven't been uploaded
and then download them be warned that
this takes a long time so
definitely plan to wait a bit when you
do that. It also has a navigation app
which is kind of interesting
and then you can do heart rate training
and here you can see it's actually not
translated so there are little bugs like
this at least with the version we're
testing here
otherwise a decent app and you can
review your rides
do some basic analysis. I still think
Strava or other apps are a little bit
better than this
but the fact that you can customize this
and then sync rides to Strava or other
platforms is a really nice option
and otherwise the app is easy to use.
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Now let's take a look at the Miles GPS
on the road overall we were pretty
satisfied with the GPS. The GPS quality
was good in our area
no real cutouts and data display was
updated pretty quickly.
You do have to remember to start and
stop your rides there's no notification
that's one thing you kind of get used to
with higher end GPS computers.
Once you start the ride it starts
recording data and showing live
overall the interface is easy to use you
can switch between average
real time and max using the left button
and the
Raz Pro tail light integration is cool
especially with that little led
indicator. It's not actually annoying
when you're riding even though it seems
like a blinky and led would.
We do wish Shanren had gone a little bit
further with that integration
as you can't really change the modes
which would be cool to have when you're
riding.
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What we have here is the Cycplus M1 which is
about $50
currently on amazon, the retail price is
about 70 though.
We also have the Bryton Rider 15 neo
which is a $70 GPS computer which we just
reviewed with
really impressive features. Then
obviously we have the Shanren at $90
dollars. So
if we compare the Cycplus versus the
Shanren
what you can see is the Cycplus has a
much larger monitor.
It's almost three inches versus the 2.1
on the Shanren
but is a much cheaper display and you
can actually see those
backlights here so it's actually a low
quality screen where it's not really
diffused properly
and then the display is really limited.
You can only cycle through things
and if you don't have a heart rate
sensor power meter or cadence sensor you
just lose its space so
less efficient with the use of area but
obviously much bigger.
It has a standard Garmin mount just like
the Miles
but just a bigger body. Otherwise i think
the
Shanren is a lot easier to use and it's
really nice to have that light feature.
It's also odd to see that beeping
feature
as I mentioned a lot of the cheaper
computers don't have audible sound so
it's nice to have even though
you probably want to turn it off as it
gets a little bit annoying. Again the
Shanren does use better use of the area
although it is a smaller screen.
The more fair comparison is probably the
Bryton Rider 15 neo.
It's a new computer from Bryton and
their most affordable option.
You can see comparing screen to screen
very similar layouts you have that
segmented design so everything's kind of
pre-defined
so that does limit things so again like
if you go in the config menu.
For the Shanren you can see things are
pretty limited
and same thing here
so you have more limited display where
everything's kind of pre-designed
pre-designated. Now Shanren has done a
good job in that Bryton also done a
good job as he can use the
app to configure the layout
and the overall interfaces are pretty
simple as both of them have three button
interface.
The main difference between the
Bryton and the Shanren i think is the
Shanren has a couple of cool features
like the power estimation
and the connectivity with the Raz Pro
that obviously the Bryton wouldn't have.
Also the Bryton has a Bryton
style mount versus the Garmin
and obviously the Garmin is a little
more compatible with other devices.
Otherwise similar profiles the Bryton is
two inches while
the Shanren 's 2.1 but it does just look
bigger because of the body.
As far as which one to pick it's kind of
up to you depending on which features
you want.
I think the Bryton layout is a little bit
easier to read but a little more
cluttered with the way it's laid out.
With the Miles you have more even spacing
between them
but less of an emphasis on the large
speed display
as it's kind of on the bottom with a
smaller size.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for
the Shanren Miles GPS. What we like about
it is that it has a customizable display
using the Shanren app. You can actually
adjust some of the fields
and change the three page layout which
is a nice tool to have.
It also has an intuitive three row
layout which is easy to read and has a
lot of information
even though it has a segmented display
which has everything predefined.
The power estimation tools are great
for training and it's better to compare
that
than speed as the power really takes in
account cadence speed and gradient
instead of just a single measure. Some of
the cons for the GPS is the fact that a
little bit of a confusing menu
it has config 123 with icons but again
that's a limitation of this screen.
Also the Raz Pro taillight integration
is a little bit limited we feel like
they could have done a few more features
to make it more useful.
The led indicator is nice but the fact
that you can't actually change the mode
makes it less useful.
Finally the bike profiles are
limited to only storing the wheel size
it doesn't actually store the sensor so
if you switch the computer between bikes
you're going to have to re-sync sensors.
Taking everything into account we would
give the miles GPS a 9.0 out of 10. It's
a unique budget GPS computer with some
nice features like that power estimation
and Raz Pro integration. Thanks for
watching this review don't forget to
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